Quality Assurance Programme in a Community Dental Service Available to Purchase

A quality assurance programme was introduced to the Community Dentistry Department in 1985 as part of a district‐wide quality assurance initiative. The planning and introduction of the programme are described, as well as the development of appropriate standards and the mechanism of voluntary peer review which have evolved, the amount of time which has been needed to establish these programmes is indicated. Several figures, checklists and tables are presented which may be helpful to managers as a starting point, to enable their staff to consider the issues involved in introducing, implementing and monitoring a quality assurance programme in community dentistry services.